The Lone Ranger and America
The lean years of the Great Depression were a fruitful time for the creation of lasting fictional heroes. Among the most successful was a certain masked man who roamed the plains defending the weak against the strong
1932. The Great Depression has just entered its third year. Wonderfully-named writer Fran Striker is working out of Buffalo, New York producing scripts and dramas for a variety of radio stations across the USA. Striker’s stories were simple, pulpy tales that featured a generic cast of heroes and villains in unpretentious adventures in which the goodies wore white hats and the baddies black ones. It was hack work, but it paid the rent.
Striker’s clients included WXYZ in Detroit. They were good customers and bought up to five stories from him every week. Striker’s stories of spies and Secret Service agents were popular enough, but WXYZ’s owner, George W. Trendle, had a specific idea in mind. He wanted a Western. Striker took to his typewriter and hammered out a series of stories about a solitary hero who patrolled the plains, standing up for the weak and the poor, and saving the day without accepting praise or payment. Further details would be shaded in subsequent episodes, but the essentials were there. The Lone…
